I am an author, speaker, business strategist, and consultant for clients ranging up to the Fortune 100. During a 33-year career I have started seven businesses—six were successful and one not. In 2010 I published the book "Indispensable By Monday" (Wiley & Sons), and am now working on a second book, "Making Intrapreneurs."
I am founder and CEO of By Monday, Inc., an intrapreneurship and employee engagement consulting firm near Salt Lake City, and enjoy lecturing and researching at BYU as an adjunct professor in the Entrepreneur Center. Having served as the president of VitalSmarts for nine years and earned an MBA, I teach a unique mix of the “soft” and “hard” skills needed in business today. Our clients’ bottom-line success is imperative, but we get there by engaging and supporting people. lmyler@bymonday.com

What is it about your company that captures the hearts and minds of employees?

If the goal of employee engagement is to elicit a higher dosage of creativity, innovation and change, then every organization needs to embrace a mission and vision that will bring sufficient sizzle to spark imaginations and move people to action. We’re probably not talking about the mission statement found on your website or hanging on the wall of your lobby. Frankly, most formal mission statements fail to embody adequate amperage to grab the attention of a workforce. Instead, look at it from the employees’ point of view and ask yourself this question:

“How many of our people would continue to work here after winning a $5M lottery?”

If the answer is, “Not a single person would do that,” then your organization’s connection to its workforce might need some refurbishing. The type of company/employee relationship that would yield a more positive answer to the lottery question is easily observable in some industries like Healthcare, where most people are in it to help and heal others; or Aerospace & Defense, where many have a profound desire to support the strength of their country. Of course, there are industries where it’s seemingly more difficult to build motivating bonds between employees and what the company does, such as tech support or airport security.

Whether this is easy or hard for you to do in your industry, here are three ways to forge better connections between your people and your mission:

1. Focus on the end result that the organization produces, not just the tasks individuals perform. The member of the housekeeping staff who contributes to a remarkable guest experience is more engaged than the one who just cleans hotel rooms.

2. Help employees understand the negative consequences of not doing their jobs well. It can be quite motivating to discover how acutely a bad experience can cause displeasure for the customer and loss for the organization.

3. Tell stories (of both success and failure) that show how essential your people really are. Points 1 and 2 above will become more meaningful when attached to actual events. Collect as many stories as you can that demonstrate both the positive and negative ends of the spectrum, and use them to teach employees how much of a difference their work will make.

Have you developed strong ties between your mission/vision and your workforce? Here’s an example of one company that has.

Breathe Life Healing Centers’ Founder Brad Lamm had been in private practice as one of the nation’s largest addiction intervention companies through his business Change Inc by Brad Lamm and wondered, “How might we grow in this rapidly shifting insurance-driven landscape.” As Change Inc’s work grew to include after-rehab case management, and their proprietary Family Class virtual programming, Lamm’s vision expanded to focus on localized long-term partial hospitalization and IOP-billed care. Collaborating with the brightest stars in the recovery and rehab realm. Lamm tapped collaborators Dr. Tian Dayton, and Dr. John SharpSharp to head up the clinical and medical portions of the new program along with industry veteran Deb Hughes as CEO. And in eight short months, not one, but two units of the new brand had been birthed: Breathe Life Healing Centers came to life of 42 residential beds in a cutting-edge program utilizing 21st Century insurance-driven realities.

Because the company helps clients recover from the ravages of binge eating, addiction and trauma, its’ vision has become a rallying point for employees, families and clients alike.

In fact, it is that shared vision that energizes Breathe’s highly qualified teamteam to continually improve the ways in which they help their guests gain the wisdom and strength of spirit necessary to move forward in life. Some of those improvements include:

The family component. Family dynamics are a critical part of the change process, so Family Class, family weekends, and a five-day Family Program, are key components of Breathe’s work.

The healing component. Abstinence is not the singular focus, as there must also be healing of old hurts and wounds causing the problems in the first place.

A customized approach. As each client brings a different set of stories, challenges and needs, there must be more than a one-size-fits-all approach. Breathe’s A-Team staff crafts specialized treatment schedules, under one roof.

A nurturing environment. Healing takes place best, in a loving and caring atmosphere, supportive of work, joy and identifiable progress.

Best wishes to Brad Lamm, founder of Breathe Life Healing Centers, and his team as they continue to accomplish their mission and share their vision of healing and happiness. If one of the staff wins the lottery, I suspect he/she would continue working at Breathe.

Do you know of an organization whose mission drives employee engagement? Let me know—I’d like to write about it. lmyler@bymonday.com

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Great article Larry. We see a lot of employee engagement data from some of the world’s best known new tech companies – and we consistently find that having a well communicated and inspiring mission is consistently one of the highest drivers – easily higher than pay or benefits in most cases (but not all). You can read about this and see some of the data here: http://blog.cultureamp.com/2013-new-tech-employee-engagement-benchmark